Friends Forever
by capricious star
Summary: Fic starring Severus and his childhood friend. Very sad, explores superficial themes of the purity of blood. PG for content. Oh, and some insight into our dear little Severus. ^.^ Please R/R


**Friends Forever **

***

He and Severus had always been good friends. They'd laughed together, cried together, stolen together, lied together, _been_ together. They were the best of friends. They even shared the same birthdate. They'd sworn an oath to be friends forever, through thick and thin, no matter what.

Their parents had always been best friends, so this was how they had met. It had been planned that they would both go to either Hogwarts or Durmstrang. But Severus' father mistrusted the Durmstrang headmaster, and so Severus had gone to Hogwarts. 

And if Severus was going to Hogwarts, so, of course, was he. 

The night before their eleventh birthdays they had talked into the night, wondering what Hogwarts was like. His father had always been worried about him, since he had never showed any sign of magic. Severus' father, however, had convinced his father that he would be magical, since he was a pureblood and all his ancestors had been prominent members of the magical community. But he still worried. 

Severus never knew about his friend's lack of magical ability, however. Severus had always assumed that he could conduct magic. How would Severus react? 

This was the main thing that concerned him. _How would Severus react?_

On the days of their eleventh birthdays they had sat in Severus' manor's living room, waiting with abated breaths. Severus with eager anticipation, he with a worried, doubting apprehension. Was he really a- he swallowed nervously -a _Squib?_

If he was, well, he could see his future clearly. He would be disowned, certainly, and cast out into the Muggle world to live like the nonmagical person he was. It wouldn't be hard ... would it? After all, Muggles used no magic. None at all.

But what really worried him was life with no friends. No Muggle would want to befriend an outcast from a different society. And no wizard in their right minds would make friends with a Squib. Either way, his future seemed bleak and hopeless.

He definitley would not have Severus as a friend. Life without Severus- he choked back a sob -even if Severus wanted to be his friend, still, his father would most definitley not allow it.

"Hey, are you okay?" Severus asked him, eyes bright, smiling widely. 

"Uh ... yea."

"Hey, lighten up! Today we're going to school! Well, getting our admission letters, at least."

He tried to smile. No such luck. He only succeeded in making a funny sort of grimace. Severus, who was so excited, failed to notice. 

He heard a hollow type of rapping on the window, which could only be made by an owl finely taken care of. Why? Because only when an owl's claws had been trimmed and kept in good condition could it make such a noise on windows.

He closed his eyes, hoping against hope it wasn't from Hogwarts.

"It's the Hogwarts owl!" cried Severus. "It's here! It's here! But-" his face fell.

He looked up.

"But ... there's only ... there's only ... _one ..._"

He shut his eyes tightly again.

And opened them.

He saw Severus staring at him with a mixture of horror and disgust. Unfathomable emotions swirling in his black, dark eyes. "You ..."

He felt like he was falling, falling, down, down, down, into an endless abyss, beyond salvation, beyond hope, beyond the will to live and to be free and to laugh and cry and enjoy whatever life had for him, whatever he could reap from its sorrows and pleasures, and he felt himself descending, deep, deep down, far past that ...

"You're a _Squib_..." Severus hissed.

Slowly, slowly, ever so slowly, he nodded.

Severus backed away. 

And started screaming.

"You're a Squib! You're a worthless Squib! A rotten, horrible Squib! You're a Squib! Squib! Squib! SQUIB! You're ..." Severus cast about his eleven year-old vocabulary, searching for a suitable word to express his disgust at the condition of his best friend. 

If only Severus knew what he was doing to his friend he might have stopped. But he didn't, and he kept on screaming.

"You're ... you're worse than a Mudblood! Than a Muggle, even! You're a Squib! A disgrace! You ... you disgust me!"

That did it. He ran from the room, leaving Severus staring, appalled, at him. 

The ancient Muggle cliche ran through his ears, taunting him, singing, chanting in those thousand nasty little voices belonging only to bitter, small, nonexistant pixies created by the mind.

_Sticks and stones can break my bones, but words can never hurt me ..._

_Not true!_ he thought angrily. Now enveloped in a rage, he ran up to Severus' room where he knew a large window was located. Unfortunately, Severus had followed him upstairs and screamed at him.

"Get out of my room, Squib! Get out of my sight! Stay away from me! Don't dirty my house! Go! Go! Get away!"

The voices disappeared, replaced by a sad, mournful tone. _Sticks and stones can break your bones, but words can shatter the soul ..._

He continued running to Severus' room. He got there moments before Severus did. Throwing the windows open and thrusting the curtains aside, he stepped on the windowsill. The bright sunlight hurt his eyes.

Severus came running into the room. "You ..." he hissed venomously. "What are you doing? Get out! Get out! Leave!"

He turned around, staring into Severus' eyes. For a moment he felt like he was staring into Severus' soul.

It was as if he had finally seen him for the first time. He saw how superficial he was, the shallow delights he took in purity of his blood. He saw how lonely Severus really was, and he saw a hint of who Severus would be and what he would become. For the first time, he was really seeing Severus Snape.

He turned back to the window, basking in the sunlight for a moment. Then he paused, and looked back at him. "Friends forever, eh, Sev?" he said, hoarsely.

He took a step forward. Did he really want to do this?

Of course. There was nothing for him, anyway, as a Squib.

He let go of the sides and felt himself falling, falling, saw the grass rushing up to his face, smelled the sweet honey in the air and heard the soft buzzing of the bees at work, saw the blue skies smiling down at him and the wind whistling through the air. He saw all the past memories, the few happy ones that he possessed. 

And before he finally hit the ground, he heard his father rush into Severus' room. "Where is he?" he called. "He got his Hogwarts letter just now!" 

The ground was so close that he could feel the long, spikey tips of the crab-grass brushing his ears.

He saw Severus' horrified face joined by his father's at the window, holding the letter marked with the Hogwarts crest. The letter addressed to him.

"Friends forever," he whispered, and closed his eyes. 

And then all went black.

***


End file.
